Tag Archives: prayer

Well the election is over and it doesn’t matter who you voted for and it really is none of my business. I’ve heard people who are ecstatic that President Obama has been given another chance to see what he can do. Whether it is good or bad, fair or unfair is not for me to say. And, on the other hand I’ve heard people say that now our country will go to hell in a hand basket; that President Obama will not only give away the farm but will toss in the livestock. Again, it is not for me to say what my opinion is on the subject. Honestly, I’m not worried one way or the other. Long before last Tuesday my son reminded me that no matter who is president that Jesus is still King. To me that’s all that’s important. I know no matter what that God will always take care of me and my family. He always has.

Are you worried about the country? Come on… do you honestly think one man can build our country up or tear it down? Only God can destroy our country. We must exercise our faith in Him. Remember what He promised in 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear their prayers from Heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. So there you go! Christians should not be wasting their time pointing fingers and blaming others. The reason our country is in the mess it is in is because God’s people, His children have turned away from listening to Him and following His principles and virtues and have started living like the world. Today it is hard sometimes to tell the Christians from the world. We accept far more than we should and we fail to stand up and speak up for our beliefs. When they wanted to take prayer and devotionals out of the public schools we sat on our hands and let them. Then they wanted to remove the Ten Commandments from all public buildings and again we did not speak up. They said it is all right to kill unborn babies and we allowed that and same-sex marriage and on and on and on… Where does it stop?

It will stop when Christians get on their knees and humble themselves, pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways! So stop blaming President Obama or whoever is in office and start putting the blame on our backs where it belongs. If God’s children will pray and stand up for God’s principles and virtues (and apply them to their lives) this country can once again be a wonderful place to live. Our children can play outside or walk a block to the store without having to worry about being kidnapped, raped and/or murdered. Neighbors will be willing to help neighbors. Yes, there will be jobs for everyone and we can once again freely seek the American Dream. It is up to us, not one of us but all of us. Christians you should never have to tell someone you are a Christian they should be able to tell it by the way you live.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time please read your Bible, seek God’s way and keep praying. We can once again be God’s Client Nation and have His favor.

One of the things I’ve come across in my writing career is the impatience of other people; usually our loved ones (spouse, children, siblings.) Often when we talk to them they want to know if we are still writing, where we are in the process and how much longer do we think it will take us. This is unnecessary pressure. It can bring our creative juices to a quick halt, or I know it can mine. The one thing an author doesn’t need is more pressure. However, these well-meaning souls usually have no idea what we go through. They think we sit down at the computer and the words just flow from our fingers. Oh, if it was that easy, right? They have no idea how we struggle to show and not tell a scene, to listen to our characters and speak through their voices not our own and so on and so on… Some have even asked “Why don’t you get a real job?” Writing isn’t a real job? Hello!

When I want to tell them to back off I have to think of Noah. Can you imagine the pressure he went through when he was building the Ark? I’m sure that his family, like ours, wanted to know when he would finish and what he was really working on. Maybe they accused him of wasting time. We might take a year or so to write a novel, probably less once we get rolling, but it took him 120 years to build the ark! To put up with people ridiculing you for 120 years had to take some strength. Yes, of course I know that God gives us the strength to do whatever He asks us to do but that doesn’t shield us from the people who are just looking for and hoping we will fail. Yes, He also gives us the strength and knowledge to deal with them in a way that He approves.

Now I know that I’m no Noah but I do believe my love for writing and my God-given talent is for writing, so I have to believe that God will give me the strength to persevere and finish the novels I have started. I need to “Trust in God with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) This means I have to turn my writing career over to Him. I really do try to do this. One thing I have found that helps me is to say a prayer before my writing sessions to ask Him to write the story through me and after the session to thank Him for His help.

Maybe you aren’t a believer in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, if not praying won’t help you with your career. But it is so easy to become a child of God. All it takes is faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ alone. Remember God knows your heart so all you have to do is tell Him you do believe that Jesus came to earth and died as a substitute for our sins. Sounds easy? It is.

I know God gives each of us a talent to make our living but He leaves it up to us to find that talent and develop it and become successful. God takes good care of His children but He will never give us more than we are capable of dealing with whether troubles or blessings.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time keep praying and asking God what He wants you to write and keep believing. Remember what He did for the people during Biblical times He will do for us today if we believe. Oh the stories that I could share but I’ll save them for another time.

A career in writing can be a very lonely job. However, it can be equally exciting; we get to see our characters grow and develop their personalities. We get to travel places that we might only get to go in our imagination. Being an author can also bring along fear and doubt. We get rejections on top of rejections while we see others who don’t write as well or are at least equal with us. We wonder “What am I doing wrong?” The truth might be that the problem is not in your writing at all.

We can’t doubt and have faith all at the same time. It is impossible! We either have faith that God gave us our talent and we will be successful in His time or we doubt that He will do what He said He will do. If we doubt, in essence we are calling God a liar. He either keeps His promises or He doesn’t. And I for one know He doesn’t lie.

We just need to have patience and wait for His time. Sometimes it might take days, weeks or even years but when the time is right we will see God working to answer our prayers. This has happened to me so many times. I once prayed for a house in a certain area. Well we moved into an apartment and it was nice so I quit praying for the house. A couple of years later we bought a house in the area I had prayed about. I didn’t think about my prayer until one day I was backing out of our drive and thanking God for our home when His Spirit spoke to mine and said, “You asked for a home in this area.” Let me tell you it floored me!! I stopped right there and said, “Yes Lord I did, please forgive me for not thanking you sooner.” The house was what I had prayed about a couple of years before!! God is so good all the time.

So talk to God and if He has given you the talent to be a writer don’t doubt your success. It will come in God’s time. It will be the success He has planned especially for you and you will be happy. So now instead of worry have peace in your soul and know that God is in charge. He is working behind the scenes when we don’t see His hand in what we are doing. Go on and in your mind see your book on the best sellers list, see yourself doing huge book signings and start now thanking God for your success. Is this mind over matter? I don’t think so. Remember Isaiah 41:10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ That is a promise from God! So we don’t need to look around at other authors and see them getting published and wonder why we aren’t. We don’t need to worry if an agent will accept us or not. 2 Timothy 7 tells us; (For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.) All we need to do is keep writing and trusting God. It sounds so easy but let me tell you that you will have times of doubt. Satan will try to whisper in your ear that you are a fool and shouldn’t believe that God is in charge but don’t you believe him. You just keep praying and asking God what He wants you to do next and trust Him for a successful outcome.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time keep writing and keep trusting God and believe that you are a success because God doesn’t lie.

Do you ever doubt your writing skills? You know you are a writer maybe you’ve even have published books to prove it. But you sit down at the computer and you think, “I can’t do this. I can’t get my thoughts to come out the way I want them to.” And a small internal voice whispers, “Of course you can’t. Who are you trying to fool? You can’t write and even if you put words on the paper no one will want to read them.” Then you hear. “Writing is a hard world to break into. You have to know somebody who knows somebody to even get your big toe in the door. You might as well give it up.” And you think “Who do I know?” And you come up with “On one.”

But you are wrong! If you are a Christian you know God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and they are bigger than anything, even the publishing business. If God has given you the talent to write He will open the doors that He wants open for you. We don’t need to worry about which doors will get open and how they get open. That is not our job! Our job is to write and keep writing. We know God gave us the talent so we have to trust Him to guide us where we should be.

In James 1; 1 – 8 James tells us to trust God and not be double minded. If we know God gave us our writing talent then we can trust Him to show us how to succeed.

We must practice our faith in our every day lives. When a problem arises we should think of God immediately. Once we have talked to Him we know He has worked the situation out for our benefit. (Romans 8: 28) When we ask we must have faith that it is done. Jesus was the perfect example to this. He would get alone to talk to God and we read where He knew what to do and say. Jesus didn’t doubt God because He knew God was and is bigger and more powerful than anything this world can throw at us. We too must know this. We are God’s children and He works all things for our good. So when we go to our Father we should go knowing whatever we ask will be done.

Satan wants us to be full of doubts and fail. He wants to destroy us. If we are destroyed and fail what glory does that bring God? But on the other hand God wants us to succeed and be prosperous. I fully believe He would not have given us the desire to write if He didn’t want us to be authors.

A good practice is when you sit down to write, first bow your head and ask God to guide you; ask Him to write the story through you. Then start writing and leave the consequences to Him. You will have more confidence in yourself and the work you produce.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time keep writing but more important keep believing and praying and remember God is greater. God bless.

I lay basking in my bed lost somewhere between awake and the wonderful bliss of dreams. From the dim greenish light filling the room I knew it was close to five in the morning. I stretched but didn’t get up. I could hear the birds singing and the whir of my ceiling fan added to the quiet noise and the quality of tranquility. I said a prayer thanking God for where I live and all He has given me and then I asked Him to tell me what I could do for Him today. When the coffee pot added its plop plop to the rhythm of my morning I knew it was time to rise and shine. Besides that my bladder was screaming for relief.

After washing my face and hands and pouring myself a cup of the dark brown brew I made my way to the back porch and my glider. There’s a comforting hush over the world at this hour of the morning. The sky is neither dark nor light it’s that in between dull gray. A light fog shrouds the trees beyond my privacy fence and gives a slight eerie touch. This is my time. The birds are chirping and hopping around the food and water I keep in my backyard for them. My big old dog snuggles my legs wanting her ears scratched and afterwards curls up in a ball at my feet and promptly falls back to sleep. She’s old and I know she won’t be here to share these mornings much longer.

I sigh and take a drink of coffee as I look out at my property, ‘my little piece of Florida,’ I like to call it. It is not huge but it is not one of those yards that are almost as small as a postage stamp. I have almost an acre and love it. I do my own yard work. A stranger can’t take care of it with the love I do. I’m not one of those prissy, prissy girls. As a matter of fact I don’t mind getting sweaty or my hands dirty. I love cutting the grass with a push mower and watching the small bugs hopping out of the way of the sharp blade and the sweet smell of fresh-cut grass swirling around me.

I turn and look along the privacy fence at my flower gardens. It seems the weeds grow faster than the flowers. By the time I finish weeding all the way around it is time to start all over again. I have quite a collection there; roses, sunflowers, zinnias, Joe Pye weed, dog fennel (yeah I know some call that a weed but I think they are pretty and it’s my yard) periwinkles, Berbera daisies, lilies and many, many more. Several my husband has adamantly told me are weeds but I tell him ‘one man’s weed is another man’s flower.’ If I like the way it looks I either keep it if it comes up on its own or plant it myself.

A reddish gold ring is appearing on the horizon so I know the sun will be here soon. I down the rest of my coffee and go get dressed but the tranquility and peace I found this morning out on my porch just me, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will last me all day. Unless someone tees me off.

This blog really has no rhyme or reason it is just some of my thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time if you have a porch slip out in the early morning hour just before daybreak and sit on it as you count your blessings. You’ll find that they out weigh your hardships every time. God bless.

I’ve heard many times and I’m sure you have too people say that babies don’t come with instructions. They are wrong, I say again wrong. The Book of Proverbs gives wonderful instructions on how to raise a godly child. Solomon wrote Proverbs and other than God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit he was the wisest man who ever lived. In 2 Chronicles 1:10-11 when Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge to rule the people that God had made him king over the way God had promised David He would do. God told him that since he had asked for wisdom and knowledge and not wealth and honor that He would give him what he asked for but He would also make him wealthier than any king before him or any king after him.

Now isn’t that just like God to give us more than we ask for? Jesus tells us in Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” But you must have faith. Remember, little faith says God can, middle faith says God will and great faith says God has. That’s why Jesus said “believe that you have received it” not that you might or you will but that it is already a done deal. Now you might say “Well I’ve prayed and I never received what I asked for.” James 4:3 tells us, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” God takes great care of His children. He provides for all our needs. But hey that’s for another blog at another time. You know how I am. I love God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and it is hard to turn me off once I get started talking about Them.

Let’s get back to the subject. Let me tell you the difference between knowledge and wisdom according to Pastor Ken Whitten. Knowledge knows that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom knows better than to put it in a fruit salad.

So you see Solomon gave us instructions on how to raise children. In Proverbs 22:6 he tells us to “bring up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Read the Book and see what it says.

Solomon tells us in Proverbs 13:24 (NIV Bible) “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” Now this does not mean to beat the living daylights out of our children. That’s abuse and it is wrong! It means we are to discipline our children when they do wrong. But first we must teach them right from wrong. I will guarantee you one thing, if you don’t discipline your kids, if you let them do anything they want to with anyone they want to and go where they want to you will raise a disrespectful FOOL! They need a parent not another friend! To love a child is to teach a child. And you do have a book of instructions. The Book of Proverbs in the Holy Bible Pastor Ken teaches that “the Bible is the book of Heavenly instructions for earthly living.” But like any other book of instructions if you don’t read them you can’t follow them.

I urge you to take a look at Proverbs and ask God to give you the wisdom to understand what you read. If you follow God’s instructions I guarantee you won’t raise a fool. Your children will be the joy they were meant to be.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time do something fun with your kids/grandkids. Make happy memories for a rainy day. Stay safe and God bless.

We hear so many stories today of divorce and families being separated for one reason or an other. There is one relationship that we never have to worry about anything separating us from: our relationship with God.

As I have stated before I base this blog on my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and my devotional from Dr. Charles Stanley. I most definitely want to give credit where credit is due. The main credit for our existence should be given to God our Father. As Dr. Stanley teaches: the lord designed us for a close intimate relationship with Him. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross as a substitute for us. When Jesus hung on that old cross all sins past, present and future were imputed to Him. He did this in obedience to God the Father and because of His love for us. God even sends us a Guide and Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to teach us His ways and to intercede for us when we pray and just don’t know how to pray or what to pray for.

When we trust in Jesus God adopts us as His very own children, we are part of the family of God! Now think about it. Think about your love for your children and family. When they are in need is there anything you would not do for them? If they are hungry, need clothes or are sick wouldn’t you go to any measure to take care of their needs? Then why do you think God would do any less for us? He loves us far more than we are capable of loving anyone or anything: yet we doubt Him. When we have a problem we fret and worry instead of calling “Father!” He is here with us and He loves us yet we don’t believe. God wants us to turn to Him. He wants to supply everything we need no matter how large or how small. I’ll be honest with you, He has even helped me find a parking place. And He helps me merge into the flow of traffic when I am driving on a busy highway. If I misplace or lose something I ask and He leads me to it. What He does for me He will do for you. Try it, trust Him. The Bible is full of His love for us. And once we have faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ no force can pluck us from His hand. Which mean absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love. All He asks is that we trust Him.

When we hear that a storm is coming we rush to our homes to find safety. We have made sure that it was built on a solid foundation. But what do we do when the storms of life come our way; where do we run? Is your house of faith built on a strong foundation? Will it stand strong no matter what winds of trouble Satan may hurl your way?

Our house of faith should be built on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “How do I do that?” You might ask. We build our foundation of trust by getting in the Bible on a daily basis; not just reading it but actually studying it. Before we start our study we should confess our sins to God and our Father will forgive the sins we confess and cleanse us of the sins we are unaware we committed. 1 John 1:9 Then we ask God to speak to our hearts and show us what we need to learn from the day’s scripture. Of course we should also be in a church under a pastor/teacher’s teachings. And we spend time with God in prayer talking to Him. You can’t know someone you don’t spend time with and you can’t trust someone you don’t know. That’s how we build our house of peace and faith. He tells us in Psalm 55:22 to cast all our cares upon Him and He will give us rest. He will actually carry the burden for you. But you need to build that house of trust brick by brick of learning and claiming God’s principles. We test God’s Word to see if it is true. He doesn’t mind, in fact He tells us to in Malachi 3:8-10. I can tell you this, the more you test the more you will see that God does not lie. He has always kept His promises and He always will. There is absolutely nothing too strong and big for God to handle. We are His children and He wants His children to trust Him and rely on Him. Just as we want to spend time with our kids God desires to spend time with us. So I urge you to take a little time every day and set it aside for you and God; use that time to talk to Him and get to know Him. I can tell you the more you know Him the more you will want to know Him. God is good all the time.

A robber has come to steal your peace and you opened the door and let him in. Most of us know what anxiety feels like. It robs us of our peace. The world promises all kinds of solutions to this: if we just own this car or house, or our hair is this color, and if we join a gym so we can all walk around with prefect bodies. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not against owning a nice home or car. If you can afford it without being consumed by worrying if you’ll be able to make the payments that is absolutely great. And if you go to a gym to workout with staying healthy in mind that’s a good thing too. What I’m saying is the world does not have the true answer for peace. God is the only One Who can give us the gift of serenity. We get there by trusting Him. Instead of worrying we pray and seek God’s solution. We let Him wrap our hearts in His love. Now, if we have already sunk ourselves head over heels in debt we need to seek God’s solution for getting it paid off. We might not like His way because He might tell us to get rid of the house and/or car or He might not. If we want true peace we will seek His ways and follow them. For true peace we must: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

When we were saved we became a new creature in Christ. this does not mean living the Christian life will be all honey and roses. No, it won’t be easy. In fact, God knew we could never do it on our own so He sent us the Holy Spirit to indwell us and to guide and teach us. God wants us to be like Jesus. We are to strive to pattern our lives after Jesus.

Jesus was full deity and full man. He was not half and half. He chose to lay down His deity of being One with God. (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. John 1:1) Jesus is God’s only begotten Son! Yet, He willingly lay down His deity and became flesh (human) to fulfill God’s plan for our salvation. No one forced Him to do it, He did it on His own accord. He did not come as some high king or prince when He came to live among us. No, He came as a servant. He told us that He came to serve not to be served. He most likely learned Joseph’s trade of being a carpenter (definitely hard work.) He did not own an earthly home (no place of His own to lay His head) and once He began to teach he lived on alms. Jesus was eminently humble and we especially need to learn this. (Learn of Me, for I am gently and humble in heart. Matthew 11:29)

What am I saying? If we want to live the Christian life we must pattern our lives after Jesus. We are not to be proud, haughty and boastful but rather be kind and gentle treating others with love.